Category: Irony

Did you know that there’s been a dramatic shift in the age when most young adults complete all the major transitions into adulthood? We’re talking about leaving home, finishing school, becoming financially independent, getting married and having a child. Back in 1960, 77% of women and 65% of men had completed all these transitions by age 30. Fast forward to 2000 and those numbers dropped to only 46% of women and only 31% of men having completed those same transitions by the time they turned 30.

Why? For one thing, today we have an overwhelming number of choices. But in addition to that, young people struggle with making big decisions. Robert Wuthnow, whose book After the Baby Boomers is the source of the statistics in the first paragraph, calls these 21 to 45-year-olds ‘tinkerers.’ They tinker with doctrines, churches, relationships, college majors, advanced degrees, living at home and even with spiritual practices. Those who are Christians often get stuck waiting to know ‘God’s perfect will,’ or ‘for a door to open,’ or ‘for a word from the Lord’ and so on.

Years ago, when I was contemplating leaving my job at AT&T, I read everything I could get my hands on about finding God’s will. I was desperate. I’d never had a grownup job anywhere other than ‘the phone company.’ It was lucrative and secure. But I had no peace . . . my single-minded passion for moving up in the company had almost ruined my marriage. Yet I had no open doors to another job. I needed God to tell me what to do. Stay or go? Keep on or start over?

My investigation into finding God’s will led me to an understanding that served me well then and since. And at some point, I found Kevin DeYoung’s book, Just Do Something, which spells it out with an economy of words. He says the New Testament illuminates 3 flavors of God’s will . . .

God’s will of decree – This is what God ordained. Some people call this His sovereign will. He decides. He rules. He’s never wrong. We can’t know his will of decree . . . we can only accept and respect it. It cannot be thwarted.

God’s will of desire – This is how things ought to be. It’s the bulk of the New Testament and of Jesus’ life and teaching. Sometimes called God’s moral will . . . it’s His prescription for how we should live our lives, how we should love and relate to others and how we should relate to Him.

God’s will of direction – This is God’s specific plan for your life; could be called His individual will. Should I leave this job? Buy this house? Move back to my hometown? Pray as long and as hard as you will, but God rarely tells us what to do. DeYoung says He loves us too much to take away our free will. He lets us choose for ourselves and that’s ok, so long as we operate within the bounds of His will of desire . . . His moral will as revealed in the New Testament.

While there’s the age-old argument about what’s predestined and what’s not, there’s more consensus around God’s wills of decree and desire. His authority over Heaven and earth is obvious. And His desire for our behavior to reflect what Jesus did and what the New Testament says is pretty clear. The harder part comes in regard to God’s will of direction. DeYoung argues (and I agree) that God’s individual will for me and you can only be understood in arrears. “Looking back” he writes, “we will often be able to see God’s hand in bringing us to where we are. But while we are free to ask God for wisdom, He does not burden us with the task of divining His will of direction for our lives ahead of time.” God gives us His Word, free will, access to the wise counsel of other Jesus-followers and the assurance of His presence with us no matter what we decide. Then we decide and go! Our challenge is to trust Him with the outcome . . . regardless. That’s what we call faith.

So, my advice for those who are tinkering away their lives? Just do something!

It’s interesting how overweight and smoking doctors can still heal you, isn’t it? By all means, if anyone knows the dangers of obesity and smoking, it’d be them right? But despite their problems, they can still lead you on a path towards health, treat your sickness, and prescribe the right medicine.

Sometimes in Christianity, we think that we have to have it all together before we help someone else walk through spiritual healing. Someone comes to us asking for help, but we’re afraid to offer it because we feel too belittled by our own problems. Even more so, we feel like a hypocrite.

“How do I get you out of your crap when I’m still stuck in mine?”

Well here’s some good news for you: we all have crap. Pastors included. And it’s a shame that we would be unwilling to help others because we’re too ashamed of ourselves.

The beauty of groups like Alcoholics Annonymous and Celebrate Recovery is that a bunch of openly broken people work alongside each other. They are open to helping each other even when they themselves are falling apart. They all have the same (or similar) problem. Some of them have achieved sobriety, while others are still stuck in relapse. But they offer whatever help they can provide to each other regardless of where they are at. Some even often ask for advice from those who are doing worse than they are, which is healing to both.

I suppose the old adage is true: you can’t give someone something you don’t have, hence why not just anyone can be a sponsor—hence why not just anyone can be a doctor! But our brokenness does not mean we are incapable of helping each other, loving each other, and generally guiding each other towards Jesus.

My fear is more so for those with a plank in their eye—unable to see or admit their own brokenness but willing to offer advice to others, even though Biblically, the others are better off with only a spec in their eye. Pride is a pharisaical and dangerous attribute to wield at someone.

When you’re truly unable to help someone, lead them to someone who can. But don’t belittle yourself in resentment and shame and think you have nothing to add. If you’re avidly working on your brokenness, you are not as much of a hypocrite as you think.

The LORD Almighty has sworn,
“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
(Isaiah 14:24)

Today is a famous day described as a day of Infamy. It is one of the most famous days in the history of war. There are a lot of famous battles described in our history books, David and Goliath, Troy, Gettysburg…and more. I need to wonder and ask why. Most wars since WWII have been un-Godly nobody wins situations that do not seem to resolve anything. In fact, after the treaties are signed there has been as much tension as before and does not make a lot of sense to me.

So where is God in all of this? What would Jesus do? How come both sides can think God is with them? These are great questions and I am not even going to try to answer them. I will refer them to Abraham Lincoln as he analyzed God’s presence in war.

In Abraham Lincoln: A History by Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln is quoted: “The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purposes of either party—and yet the human instrumentalities working just as they do, are of the best adaption to effect His purpose…God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. …He could give final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”

Today we need to remember Pearl Harbor, a day in infamy. We also need to pray for an end to all conflicts and terrorist acts, we need to contemplate world peace.

I don’t believe God makes mistakes. Even though the job you’re in might feel like a dead end, you’re in that job for a reason. Maybe it’s requiring you to grow parts of yourself you would rather just leave alone. Or maybe you’re being forced into situations where you are having to trust God because you’re pressed way beyond your area of comfort or confidence. What if God is using your job to teach you some things about yourself or about Him? Like any good father, God wants you to grow and develop. He wants you to be challenged in your work, but He’d rather see you ‘Holy’ than ‘Happy.’ Sometimes He leaves us in ‘dead-end jobs’ for periods of time that are much longer than we’d like.

Consider Jesus’ disciples. The brightest young students in Jesus’ day were invited by rabbis to “follow me” (i.e. to become their disciples). Once selected, they would continue in their studies of the Talmud on the career path to become one of the Jewish rabbinical clergy. About the time of puberty, these young men would be chosen to study under a single rabbi. If a young man wasn’t chosen by the age of 13 or 14, then he would follow his father or uncle into the family trade, becoming an apprentice and ultimately making his living doing what his dad or uncle did. We can assume, based on their professions (fishermen, tax collector, etc.) that Jesus’ disciples were rejected as career religious leaders. They hadn’t been called by a rabbi, yet they had to make a living somehow. So out of necessity, they took dead-end jobs, following in the career footsteps of their fathers. But then along came Jesus . . . and everything changed. As founders of the church, these guys ended up doing some of the most important jobs in all of history.

With most things, we see God’s hand in our lives retrospectively. We’d like to know in advance that things are going to work out but unfortunately, God’s will isn’t always wrinkle free, pain free or struggle free. It’s often quite the opposite. It’s after things happen, decisions are made, and events occur that we can look back and see the hand of God in them. When I look back on my career, I can clearly see God’s hand. I can see how He was maturing me as I sat in dead-end jobs for 5 years. I wasn’t conscious of it then but He was clearly there . . . sustaining me, nudging me on when the results were poor and I wanted to give up . . . and reminding me that it was Him who would bring that next job.

So, if you’re in a dead end job, talk to the One who put you there. Ask Him to show you what He wants you to learn . . . about Him . . . about yourself . . . about the people you work with. After all, it might not be all about you! You may be there just to impact someone you work with . . . to be the person who points them to Jesus at the perfect time.

And if that’s not the case, then ask Him to usher you out of there and into a better job. He can do that . . . He will do that . . . the question is when. It was years for Jesus’ disciples . . . it may be years for you as well. He wants you to trust Him. Will you?

A lady committed a crime and she was sent to court. The punishment for the crime was life imprisonment. She shed tears for help but to no avail. When the case w…as called in court she started weeping. Her husband, family and friends who accompanied her started weeping but there was no hope. But something happened. Before the lady could stand in the witness box a man stood up and the court room was silent. Everyone looked at Him. He was noble and gentle. He stood in the witness box and interceded on behalf of the woman. The case was difficult, yet He used all His strength, energy and resources to fight on behalf of the woman. After a long legal battle between the man and the accusers, the lady was set free. The lady fell before the man and asked ‘WHO ARE YOU?’

The next day the lady deliberately committed another crime and was sent to the same court. As soon as she entered the courtroom, she saw the man who interceded for her the previous day on the judgement seat. He was no longer a lawyer, but a judge. With smiles on her face the lady said ‘I have come again’ The man lifted his head and said ‘yesterday I was a lawyer, so I fought for you, even when you were guilty. But today I am a judge and my judgement must be fair.’ With tears in the ladies eyes she asked for the second time ‘WHO ARE YOU’ and the man replied ‘I AM THE SAVIOUR’.

Today Christ Jesus is our lawyer and redeemer, but a day is coming when He will give a fair judgement to everyone. JESUS IS COMING SOON, SO PREPARE TO MEET HIM. Don’t fail to share this with others, I have done mine by sharing it with you.﻿

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees. “Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that
way!”

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized,
saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”

Reflection:
Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.